Gunmen from different armed groups have begun to surrender to Iraqi government troops in the city of Amarah ahead of a military crackdown due to start there later this week, an Interior Ministry official said on Tuesday.

“Big groups have started surrendering themselves and their weapons,” Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Abdul-Karim Khalaf told reporters in Amarah, the capital of Maysan province.

His comments come just two days ahead of the expiration of a deadline for gunmen in the city to surrender their weapons or face harsh measures.

“Some of these people who have surrendered are important people, and their hands were not stained by the blood of innocent people,” Khalaf added.

As Bush and McCain have said, we can easily obtain victory in Iraq and begin to withdrawal our forces in victory instead of defeat as proposed by Obama and the Surrendercrats. Liberal angst and anger cannot stop our victory now, nor should it. It is time to recognize the positive results fought and sacrificed for by our military and civilian men and woman who served in Iraq.

If you support the troops, support their victory!

(or else admit you are bitter liberal clinging to your fantasies of a defeated America and the second coming of Vietnam – Doh!)

30,000 more troops coming home in July. 30,000 more soldiers back at home with their families. What a wonderful job they have done. We should have a parade for them. But somehow I doubt there will be one.

Oh, and when I was in the military, being in a parade was a real pain in the rear. So maybe we should have a different kind of parade for them. Maybe we should have one somewhere on a military base and WE do the parading and waving to them and they can watch. Never happen.

How about parading the Democrat Senators , congressweasels and a few RINO’s who undermined these great soldiers at every oppotunity, as they thought it would be politically opportune, in Burkas and handcuffs and please let Pelosi and Reid lead the parade of traitors and clowns.

Is history already starting to look at Bush in a different light? I believe so. I’ve been seeing more positive articles on Bush’s actions lately. Oh, sure, there is still plenty of critique of what went wrong. But, the references of “failed policy” is only coming out of the mouths of partisan liberals right now. And, as more time goes by…..and, things in Iraq/Afghanistan and elsewhere change even more……historians will forget the mistakes….and look at the grand strategy.

In that light…..Bush shines as one of only three grand strategy Presidents. It won’t even matter if things get worse before we finally win this Long War. Bush had the vision……and dragged the world kicking and screaming into a more peaceful, safer world.

The threat Bush faced as President was more dangerous and more difficult to deal with than that of recent Presidents. It is trully a war unlike any we have ever had to fight.

Joint Base Balad is the home of the Army’s major shipping and receiving logistical operations in Iraq. But the Air Force has deployed its only wing to the Joint Base Balad because of its strategic location among other operational initiatives.

As a result, the Army recently transitioned the base operating support integration initiatives to the Air Force to reflect the joint operational status of the base. The transition includes all the base’s support functions that were previously the responsibility of the Army.

When the zoomies (Army slang for Air Force) show up with an entire air wing, it has probably gone from tactical to strategic.

“there is no military solution to a problem like that in iraq,” petraeus said, “military action is necessary to help improve security … but it is not sufficient. there needs to be a political aspect.” what a radical wingnut. i wonder what he thinks of the reconciliation between maliki and iran?
crosspatch is funny…30,000 troops home by july…we’re still not back to pre-escalation troop numbers…and that smells like victory…after 5 years, 35,000 casualties, and trillions borrowed.
keep cheerleading…sis boom bah.

redteam…
exactly what do you find funny;
patreaus’s claim that there can be no military victory?
the alliance between maliki and iran?
5 years in iraq?
35,000 casualties?
borrowing trillions?
extremeist fringe cheerleaders.

Looks like Crosspatch was correct when he said that recent statements
by the fat mullah, aka as Sadr, were cover for Iranian ops inside Iraq.

Bill Roggio just published a US military statement that the bus stop bombing
in Baghdad that killed a pretty large number of Iraqis (no coalition troops)
was not Al-Kyder but in fact Mahdi Militia Special Groups, a codeword, I
believe, for Iran. Must have been powerful explosives, 55 dead, 75 wounded.

I guess Norm will say there is no military solution for Iran killing Iraqis.
Of course, there is. We haven’t used it yet.

While Europe has failed to get Iran to shutter its Nuke program, the US military, its allies in Iraq and Iraqis themselves are putting enormous pressure on Iran by defeating Sadr and the Qoods forces inside Iraq. Iran may be one of those situations like the USSR that crumbles when it cannot continue to advance.

Norm, that’s true. There has to be political progress as well as security. There would be no way for US troops to hold Iraq..if it didnt’ want to be “held”. The point you miss is 1) us troops are not trying to “hold” Iraq and never were (something even Iraqi’s know at this point). We aren’t trying to colonize Iraq. And the people who live there know that.

More importantly, most Iraqi’s accept their elected central gov at this pointâ€”perhaps something else you haven’t factored in.

To be fair to you Norm….nobody is discounting the fact that political progress/process is important here. It has to move forward. The point is…it “has”. And it continues to show more signs that its moving forward as time goes on.

Even the DNC is figuring out how they can incorporate that change into their campaign strategy. I have no idea how they are going to do it…other than to declare victory and say it’s time to get out (which we all know, and certianly “you” know…is not that time yet.

According to the reporting at Roggio’s site, the recent bombing was designed to mimic al Qaida’s MO and stir up unrest against the Sunnis. So basically the Iranians have no problem at all in killing Iraqi Shiites to further their goal of destabilizing Iraq.

Iran has been at war with us for 30 years and will continue for another 30 and 30 more beyond that as long as they feel they are making incremental progress.

Remember … Iran’s motivation is religious so it doesn’t have to make sense. It is a matter of “faith”. You can’t talk sense into someone when logic contradicts their deeply held religions belief. Just ask Al Gore.